A personal quest to promote the use of wind energy and hydrogen technology in the Great Lakes area of the United States. The Great Lakes area is in a unique position to become an energy exporting region through these and other renewable energy technologies. *Update 2014: Just do it everywhere - Dan*

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

One Bucket-Disk (invented by Yours Truly) set: (4) aluminum tent stakes @ $0.79 each at Dick's Sporting Goods, (2) Home Depot bucets @ $3.00 each, one Disk Golf fairway driver @ $10-21.00 depending on brand & style. Notice how the bucket on the right is already tent-staked to the ground on either side of the white plastic handle grip. The disk hitting the back of the bucket would move the bucket otherwise, so would the wind on a windy day. Click on image to view full-size.

Set up buckets with openings facing each other 15 feet apart. Stake bucket handles so goals don't move. Stand behind your bucket and toss at the other bucket. Teams take turns, 1 throw each. First 20 duckets wins. Disk must be more than halfway in the bucket to count a ducket.

Teams toss at one bucket to see who goes first. Closest to bucket OR most duckets goes first.

Lose two duckets for your team if you hit another player, or physically get in front of your bucket while the other team is throwing. (Off-sides rule; throwing team must declare a throw starting and do a 5-count to let other players clear the target bucket. IE: "THROW-2-3-4-5")

Advanced rules: Get a 2nd disk. The off-turn team may attempt to throw a block at the throwing team's disk AFTER it has left the thrower's hand. Next person up on the off-turn team is also the blocking disk thrower. Lose a ducket for your team if you throw your block before the disk leaves the thrower's hand.

Skips off the ground still count as a ducket if the disk goes all the way into the bucket.

You get a very satisfying "THUNK" sound when the disk bounces off the back of the bucket.

America can't afford to keep subsidizing the most profitable and environmentally destructive industry on the planet. But for all the talks of tightening belts and cutting budgets, we still give $113 billion in taxpayer handouts to oil companies and other fossil fuel industries.

This weekend, groups from around the US will be gathering in Houston to send a message to the world's largest oil companies. There are just days left to add your name to the petition that will be hand-delivered to some of the worst polluters in America.

Across America, people just like us are speaking out and letting the largest oil companies know we oppose this unfair fossil fuel subsidies. Will you join me today in taking action to end corporate subsidies for polluters?

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Please feel free to forward this e-mail to anyone who might be interested.

Since the dawn of the Great Recession, Americans have been eating less meat, including pork. Yet in Iowa, by far the nation's leading hog-producing state, there's been a recent boom in state-issued permits for new factory-scale hog confinements.

Why would the meat industry be investing so heavily in new hog capacity if the economics aren't working out? The answer is that the industry is looking toward a boom in pork exports—and our biggest customer may soon be China.

To read about what all this means for the US pork industry—plus China's frightening plans to convert all of its family-run hog farms into US-style factory farms, click here. [READ MORE]

Hi. Thanks for signing up for Mother Jones' Food for Thought newsletter. Wait, that was your cat? Smart cat! If you don't want to get Food for Thought, or to make changes to your subscription, click here. And lock up the cat. MOTHERJONES.COMMother Jones 222 Sutter Street, Suite 600, San Francisco, CA 94108

The court ruled in favor of clean air protections in four major cases, denying petitions against the Climate Pollution Endangerment Finding and the Clean Car Standards and dismissing petitions against the Timing and Tailoring Rules.

EDF activists submitted tens of thousands of comments in favor of these critical rules and today's court decision affirms our efforts to defend EPA's common sense solutions to promote cleaner air and a safer climate future.

This ruling also comes one day after the public comment period closed on the proposed new EPA rule that would limit climate pollution from new fossil fuel power plants. An incredible 113,579 EDF activists joined a record-shattering 2 million Americans who submitted comments in favor of this rule that, if implemented, will help end dirty energy as we know it.

These are huge accomplishments made possible in large part thanks to the generous support and committed activism of you and hundreds of thousands of other EDF members. Thank you for all you do and please join me in celebrating today's historic ruling.

The nonprofit Center for Food Safety is sounding the alarm about a provision buried deep in the FY 2013 Agriculture Appropriations Bill that would allow the continued sale and planting of genetically engineered (GE) crops while health hazards are assessed by the U.S.…

Do you find yourself buying plastic beverage bottles without regret because they can be tossed in the recycling bin? Or do you justify leaving reusable bags in the car because there's a plastic bag recycling bin at the front of the store? If so, the new study "Recycling…

Activists Are Frustrated by the Many Missed Opportunities at the Rio+20 Earth Summit

On Friday afternoon, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development convened. Dubbed Rio+20, the conference was the largest UN summit ever held and marked the 20-year anniversary of the original Earth Summit also held in Rio.

Despite a down economy, fashion designers who refuse to compromise on ethical issues have been one of the industry's brightest lights in recent years. And as the economy picks up, and a sustainable textile infrastructure develops, increasing numbers of young designers are…

Ocean Acidification Is a Product of Our Emissions, but There's Little Will to Change Our Ways

Rob Jackson, Ph.D., is the Nicholas Chair of Global Environmental Change at Duke University and a professor in the Biology Department. He is also a co-chair of the Carbon Cycle Science Working Group—a group of researchers who recommend carbon cycle priorities for the…

Betsey Armstrong is a 29-year-old goalkeeper on the U.S. Water Polo team who's headed to her second Olympic Games—the 2012 Games in London—this July. Since attending the University of Michigan, Armstrong not only became serious about water polo, she developed an…

Dear EarthTalk: Renewable energy production in the solar and wind markets currently receives about $7 billion in government subsidies annually, but is still not competitive against fossil fuels on a large scale. To what extent should the U.S. continue to prop up these industries as they compete against dirty energy?

The above links are all to the e-book versions of these chapbooks.
For paperback versions and to view a listing of all my books as they are released click
HERE: Dan Stafford's Poetic Universe

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*NOTE* Before moving the Zephyr to this domain on blogspot, the original blog hosted at Whizzyrds.com/Windblog.html had over 88,000 visits, and was receiving about 25-100 visits per day since May, 2003.
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I believe I had around 200,000 total hits or so on this blog before Sitemeter went defunct.

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About Me

Happily married with two grown children out on their own, I've had extensive life experience in many areas. I consider myself a Progressive, and I strive to make the world a better place for those around me and those who'll follow after us. I am an Air Force Veteran, and I have been a Telecommunications Technician since 1993, with a Vocational Diploma in Aircraft Electronics. My interests are Environmentalism, Science, Social Justice, Poetry and Music, Reading, Karate, and learning Spanish. I'm originally from Southern Wisconsin, and have lived in the Chicago Metro area (Naperville, Plainfield, & Oak Brook) since late 1997. Moved to Temecula, CA January of 2015.

Why I Publish This Blog:

"One thing that many people do not realize is that states like Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan are sitting on a gold mine of wind energy potential. Or, more properly, next to the mine. The Great Lakes are probably the area in the USA with the third largest inland wind energy potential. Think of just the nickname for Chicago. "The Windy City". Milwaukee is even windier, I can tell you. Why? Because they sit on the edge of a great flat area where there is both a land-water temperaturedifferential, and a large flat expanse of water that is comparably shallow.Oilrigs certainly operate in deeper waters. And you won't have to construct transmission lines all the way from the plains of Montana to put it to use.

The Great Lakes area has an opportunity to get the jump on wind energy's future, if that fact isrecognized and exploited. Wind energy means jobs for construction and maintenance workers, thousandsof them. Wind energy means leasing rights and extra money for family farmers struggling to make it onagriculture alone. In most cases farmers can grow crops right up to the base of a windmill. The landfootprint has a small impact on total farm acreage. Wind energy also means freedom from fluctuatingfuel prices. Wind is free. The cost of a barrel of polluting oil can be raised or lowered drasticallybased on fears or political whims. The potential gains are enormous. We've all seen the flow of goodmanufacturing jobs out of the area. Well, they can't tell the wind to blow in another country so it'smore "convenient" or cheaper to produce. The wind is perfectly happy to whip up opportunities for usright around here. Most of all, because we here in the Great Lakes region have the potential to havea huge positive impact on U.S. energy industry emissions' contribution to global warming."

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Dan Stafford - PublisherClick on this pic to e-mail Dan.WE WELCOME ENERGY STORY SUBMISSIONS!
Please note the E-mail link by the title of the webpage. Comments, stories, and article submissions are welcome.
Any accepted submission entitles the submitter to a link on the Journal page included at the bottom of their submitted entry when published to the journal.
The Great Lakes Zephyr - Wind Energy & Hydrogen Journal makes no claim as to the accuracy of submitted material. The Great Lakes Zephyr - Wind Energy & Hydrogen Journal neither endorses nor opposes opinions expressed in submitted material. Submitter must provide
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Submitted material will be screened and appropriate entries published at the owner's discretion.

Safe, healthy, good for the economy, good for the environment, good for farmers, good for you, and just downright good produce:

I strongly encourage those seriously interested in learning about the technology, players, politics, and issues of Wind Energy to spend time browsing the
American Wind Energy Association website. They are the premier industry trade organization and have extensive resources available.
(www.awea.org)